美国国家公共电台 NPR After 12 Seasons, 'Big Bang' Writers Bid Farewell To Their 'Surrogate Family'

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

One of the biggest hits in TV history signs off tomorrow after a 12-season run.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING")

BARENAKED LADIES: (Singing) Our whole universe was in a hot, dense¹ state. Then nearly 14 billion years ago, expansion started. Wait. The Earth began to cool. The autotrophs began to drool.

CORNISH: "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS wraps up its story about a group of Caltech scientists and their friends. NPR's Mandalit del Barco visited the show's creative team as it prepared to disband.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE²: TV writers rooms are normally pretty private so that jokes and ideas can fly freely.

UNIDENTIFIED WRITER: Let the record show that Mr. Molaro rolled his eyes.

(LAUGHTER)

DEL BARCO: They're finished with their scripts, but for 12 years, the writers pitched storylines and traded jabs from their creative space at Warner Bros. Studios.

(LAUGHTER)

DEL BARCO: Their long conference table is topped by "Star Wars" toys, email about the structure of DNA³, the collected work of physicist⁴ Richard Feynman and on the TV monitors a "Star Trek⁵" screen saver. Yes, it's a show for and about geeks and nerds, and that's why it's worked, says executive producer Chuck Lorre.

CHUCK LORRE: I always thought it was because the characters were outliers and felt somewhat disenfranchised from the world and clung to each other. They created a surrogate family, and people generally feel that way. Maybe the prom king doesn't, but screw him, right? I mean, this is for the rest of us who weren't the king and queen of the prom.

DEL BARCO: Lorre co-created the show with Bill Prady, who long ago wrote computer software.

BILL PRADY: And it was sold in your neighborhood RadioShack store.

LORRE: The idea started, really, when he was discussing the brilliance⁶ of the computer programmers that you worked with and their stark⁷ inability to deal with people, women in particular.

PRADY: I mean, I remember the story that I told you, Chuck, about the guy who could do amazing calculations in his head but couldn't figure a tip in a restaurant. I told you that story, and you said, hang on; I've never seen that guy on television.

DEL BARCO: Their protagonists⁸ are physicists⁹ Leonard and Sheldon, played by Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons, and their Caltech scientist friends Raj and Howard and Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco. She started out as their neighbor. The writers say one of their favorite moments was the episode where Penny gave Sheldon a treasure in the form of an autographed napkin.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BIG BANG THEORY")

JIM PARSONS: (As Sheldon Cooper) To Sheldon, live long and prosper¹⁰, Leonard Nimoy.

(LAUGHTER)

DEL BARCO: Writer Steve Molaro says this scene was key to the evolution of the show.

STEVE MOLARO: That was the first truly electric moment where you could just feel what we were doing vibrating. And I think it really resonated.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BIG BANG THEORY")

KALEY CUOCO: (As Penny) He came into the restaurant. Sorry the napkin's dirty. He wiped his mouth with it.

(LAUGHTER)

PARSONS: (As Sheldon Cooper) I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy.

(LAUGHTER)

DEL BARCO: Steve Holland says he loved writing the show's quieter scenes.

STEVE HOLLAND: There was a wonderful moment. It was Sheldon's birthday, and they had thrown him a big party. And he gets overwhelmed and is in the bathroom. And Penny goes to the bathroom with him.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BIG BANG THEORY")

CUOCO: (As Penny) If what you need is to spend your birthday in a bathroom, I'm happy to do it with you.

PARSONS: (As Sheldon Cooper) Well, everyone will think I'm weird¹¹.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOCO: (As Penny) Sweetie, you are weird.

(LAUGHTER)

DEL BARCO: For the scripts to be scientifically plausible¹², Chuck Lorre and Steve Holland say they took their cues from the latest scientific breakthroughs. And they regularly consulted with UCLA physicist David Saltzberg.

LORRE: Sometimes you just send him the script with big blank sections to be filled in with appropriate science so that we're not ridiculed¹³.

HOLLAND: Sometimes we say things to him like, Sheldon and Amy need to have a discovery that could be worthy¹⁴ of a Nobel Prize but can't be something anyone else has already thought of, so go. Go.

LORRE: Come up with a Nobel Prize award-winning idea that we could put in a sitcom¹⁵.

HOLLAND: Yeah. Super asymmetry¹⁶ was the result of that conversation, where he invented super asymmetry for us.

DEL BARCO: That's fiction. But Bill Prady says scientists did end up winning the 2010 Nobel Prize for graphene, something similar to what Professor Saltzberg suggested for the show.

PRADY: And they cited the episode in their Nobel lecture.

DEL BARCO: Writer David Goetsch says he'll miss being able to use what he learns about science.

DAVID GOETSCH: I have this Google alert for physics, and so I get one every day. And, like, I don't want to turn it off.

DEL BARCO: Like the show's characters, most of the writers in this room have been together for 12 years. Most of them are now executive producers, among them Eric Kaplan and Maria Ferrari, who says she'll miss the team.

MARIA FERRARI: Most jobs you go off and you write your script, and you come back and you punch it up together. Here, we write it all together. That's the only thing I know how to do is write in this room for this show. It is so hard to leave it behind.

ERIC KAPLAN: It's not the only thing you know how to do. Don't you know aikido?

FERRARI: I also know aikido. I know two things.

(LAUGHTER)

DEL BARCO: Then the laughs pause, and Bill Prady chokes up telling us how he connects with the show's fans.

PRADY: All of the people who have said that they see themselves in the show because they were outsiders and people who didn't fit in - that was me.

DEL BARCO: No spoilers for the show's emotional final episode. But unraveling the mystery, it all started, and it will end, with a big bang.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING")

BARENAKED LADIES: (Singing) Big bang - bang.

DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF AK'S "COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS")

1 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

4 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

5 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

6 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

7 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

8 protagonists   

n.（戏剧的）主角( protagonist的名词复数 )；（故事的）主人公；现实事件（尤指冲突和争端的）主要参与者；领导者

参考例句：

• Mrs Pankhurst was one of the chief protagonists of women's rights. 潘克赫斯特太太是女权的主要倡导者之一。 来自辞典例句
• This reflects that Feng Menglong heartily sympathized with these protagonists. 这反映出冯梦龙由衷地同情书中的这些主要人物。 来自互联网

9 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

10 prosper   

v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣

参考例句：

• With her at the wheel,the company began to prosper.有了她当主管，公司开始兴旺起来。
• It is my earnest wish that this company will continue to prosper.我真诚希望这家公司会继续兴旺发达。

11 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

12 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

13 ridiculed   

v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Biosphere 2 was ultimately ridiculed as a research debade, as exfravagant pseudoscience. 生物圈2号最终被讥讽为科研上的大失败，代价是昂贵的伪科学。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She ridiculed his insatiable greed. 她嘲笑他的贪得无厌。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

15 sitcom   

n.情景喜剧，（广播、电视的）系列幽默剧

参考例句：

• This sitcom is produced in cooperation with Hong Kong TV.这部连续剧是同香港电视台联合制作的。
• I heard that a new sitcom is coming out next season.我听说下一季会推出一个新的情境喜剧。

16 asymmetry   

n.不对称；adj.不对称的，不对等的

参考例句：

• These bands must introduce longitudinal asymmetry in the planetary albedo.这些云带必定引起行星反照率的经向不对称性。
• In any event the asymmetry is clear enough.总之，不对称是非常明显的。